Vietnam officials killed in Iraq road accident
HANOI - Three officials, on their way to
talks with Iraq's U.S.-backed transitional
government on humanitarian aid from Vietnam,
were killed in a car accident after crossing the
Jordan border, the government said on Friday.
Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement three men,
two of whom were trade attaches at the Vietnamese embassy in Iraq,
died in the car accident on September 16.
The statement did not mention the cause of the accident but state
media said the car overturned after a tire punctured.
The officials were on a mission to promote economic and
commercial links between Vietnam and Iraq, now under the rule of the
U.S.-selected Iraqi Governing Council, on humanitarian aid from
Vietnam, said the statement.
Nguyen Kim Trong, general director of the state-run tea firm
Vinatea, was among the three victims, it added.
Trong was seeking to re-establish Vietnam's tea exports to Iraq.
Iraq was Vinatea's biggest client before the U.S.-led war with sales in
2002 of $11.5 million.
Reuters - September 19, 2003.
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